State of mental health of servicemen with emotionally unstable personality disorder

Comparative study of two contingents of servicemen, referred for military medical psychiatric examination has been carried out. The first group included 373 persons who served in the army for two years (until 2008). The second group included the servicemen who served one year (since 2008). Reduction of term of military service up to twelve months influenced significantly and positively mental health of servicemen, with reduction of number of persons, given an early discharge on grounds of mental diseases, 3,5 times. Shift of mental diseases to «milder» borderline disorders of neurotic spectrum has been revealed. Question about high number of personality disorders with predominance of emotionally unstable personality disorder remains open. Number of servicemen with emotionally unstable personality disorder increased that testifies to difficulty of verification of this abnormality of the personality at call-up age. Shift to more variable, unstable, unstructured «healthy» forms occurred. The findings are of practical character and purposeful for more constructive examination of persons of call-up age for preventive and rehabilitative purposes. Trends in mental health of servicemen may be a reflection of trends in the society as a whole: social, psychological, political, economic ones.